The inquiry into events surrounding the Iraq war will not produce a report
that is a "whitewash", Sir John Chilcot, the man in charge of it, has
insisted.

Sir John denied that his background in the heart of the establishment would compromise his independence.

"All five members of the committee, myself included, are now completely independent, from different perspectives and different bodies of experience," he said.

"You can't make up a body like this from people who have no experience of the workings of government from the inside. When you set up an independent inquiry of this sort, you set the members of it free to do what they will.

"Our determination is to do not merely a thorough job, but one which is frank and will bear public scrutiny."

Challenged over claims that the report could be a whitewash, Sir John told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It won't be, but the judgment over whether people think it is will lie with how it is read when it comes out."

His comments come after the deep hostility of Britain’s senior military commanders in Iraq towards their American allies was revealed in classified Government documents leaked to The Daily Telegraph.

In the papers, the British chief of staff in Iraq, Colonel J.K.Tanner, described his US military counterparts as “a group of Martians” for whom “dialogue is alien,” saying: “Despite our so-called ‘special relationship,’ I reckon we were treated no differently to the Portuguese.”

Col Tanner’s boss, the top British commander in the country, Major General Andrew Stewart, told how he spent “a significant amount of my time” “evading” and “refusing” orders from his US superiors.

At least once, say the documents, General Stewart’s refusal to obey an order resulted in Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Sir David Manning, being summoned to the State Department for a diplomatic reprimand - of the kind more often delivered to “rogue states” such as Zimbabwe or the Sudan.

The frank statements were made in official interviews conducted by the Ministry of Defence with Army commanders who had just returned from Operations Telic 2 and 3 – the first, crucial year of “peacekeeping” operations in Iraq, from May 2003 to May 2004.

A set of classified transcripts of the interviews, along with “post-operational reports” by British commanders, has been leaked to The Daily Telegraph.

The disclosures come the day before the Chilcot inquiry is due to begin public hearings into Britain’s involvement in Iraq. Among the issues it will investigate is the UK-US relationship.